As the need to access computers has increased, computers are increasingly found in meeting rooms, training rooms, and classrooms, as well as on office desks. While access to computers is important in all of these locations, the ability to provide an unrestricted view to a person sitting across a desk, toward a blackboard, or across a meeting table is also important, especially to allow for eye contact during a meeting, a discussion, or a lecture. Computer monitors, however, often unreasonably restrict this view, making it difficult for the computer user to see or be seen. Furthermore, computer monitors add significantly to clutter on a desk, making it difficult to use the work surface and often, therefore, causing a need for additional office furniture.
For these reasons, schools, businesses, and offices typically include at least one, and sometimes more, computer training labs or meeting rooms which are dedicated solely to computer training and use. These rooms provide a place for holding a meeting or training session in which a large number of people can each view a computer monitor, and are therefore important to computer training and application presentations, lectures, and meetings. These rooms, however, are also expensive, as they require a great deal of dedicated space, as well as significant maintenance and updating. Furthermore, although requiring a significant amount of resources, these rooms are often underused. It is desirable, therefore, to provide a system in which a computer can be selectively retrieved for use and, when not in use, can be easily and inexpensively stowed.
Another problem with computing equipment provided in offices, meeting rooms, and labs is that the equipment is portable, is typically not monitored very closely, and is, therefore, relatively easy to steal, providing both a financial and a security problem for schools and businesses. As computing equipment becomes increasingly small, and hiding the equipment therefore becomes easier, these problems have increased. It is desirable, therefore, also to provide a method for easily and inexpensively stowing and locking computer equipment.
There remains a need, therefore, for a computer desk in which a computer can be selectively provided on the desk, or easily stored and locked.